Creating an Instance Store-Backed Linux AMI

To create an instance store-backed Linux AMI, start from an instance that you've launched
from an existing instance store-backed Linux AMI. After you've customized the instance
to
suit your needs, bundle the volume and register a new AMI, which you can use to
launch new
instances with these customizations.

The AMI creation process is different for instance store-backed AMIs. For more information
about the differences between Amazon EBS-backed and instance store-backed instances,
and how to
determine the root device type for your instance, see Storage for the Root Device. If
you need to create an Amazon EBS-backed Linux AMI, see Creating an Amazon EBS-Backed Linux AMI.

Overview of the Creation Process
for Instance Store-Backed AMIs

The following diagram summarizes the process of creating an AMI from an instance
store-backed instance.

First, launch an instance from an AMI that's similar to the AMI that you'd like to
create. You can connect to your instance and customize it. When the instance is
set up
the way you want it, you can bundle it. It takes several minutes for the bundling
process to complete. After the process completes, you have a bundle, which consists
of
an image manifest (image.manifest.xml) and files
(image.part.xx) that contain a template
for the root volume. Next you upload the bundle to your Amazon S3 bucket and then
register
your AMI.

When you launch an instance using the new AMI, we create the root volume for the
instance using the bundle that you uploaded to Amazon S3. The storage space used
by the
bundle in Amazon S3 incurs charges to your account until you delete it. For more
information,
see Deregistering Your Linux AMI.

If you add instance store volumes to your instance in addition to the root device
volume, the block device mapping for the new AMI contains information for these
volumes, and the block device mappings for instances that you launch from the new
AMI
automatically contain information for these volumes. For more information, see
Block Device Mapping.